27 apr 2011

LOS ANGELES TIMES: NEW HOPE FOR THE OLD CHESTNUTS

By Tina Susman, Los Angeles TimesFrom atop a small hill in Virginia, Fred Hebard has views into the past and the future. Ahead of him: the ancient peaks of southern Appalachia. American chestnut trees once held sway across those hazy hills, numbering some 4 billion across the eastern United States.

Behind Hebard: a fledgling forest of spindly chestnut trees, their young branches bare and quivering in the cold wind. If all goes well, those trees are the beginning of a new species, one created in a chestnut mating project aimed at salvaging the American chestnut tree from near extinction.

Hebard might never know if the plan succeeds. It could take decades to determine whether the trees behind him show high levels of blight resistance. "And that only tells you if you have a chance" at full resistance, said Hebard, chief scientist of the American Chestnut Foundation, who has devoted his life to crossbreeding nuts.

Before you snicker at the idea of a group called the American Chestnut Foundation, consider some chestnut facts: Americans spend $20 million a year importing chestnuts from Europe and Asia; the meaty nuts are gluten-free, cholesterol-free and a lot less fattening than other nuts; chestnuts make a terrific beer; chestnut tree devotees include Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell, whose backyard in Georgia became home last month to a seedling that could be part of the new species coming from the farm Hebard oversees in southwestern Virginia.

"If we keep on losing components of our forests, what are we going to have left?" said Hebard, explaining the passion for a tree that is not even extinct, and for a nut that is imported easily from Europe and Asia for use in salads, stuffings, bread and in toasty bags sold from food carts in New York City.

America used to produce billions of those nuts until a blight imported from Asia attacked trees in New York. The disease spread quickly, and between 1904 and 1940, the trees were nearly wiped out.

Those that remained were either not blight-resistant or too few and widespread to produce healthy offspring to sustain the species, whose healthiest specimens grew to 100 feet tall. The trees' absence had a trickle-down effect on wildlife that foraged for chestnuts. Some experts say the panther's disappearance from this region can be traced to the trees' disappearance, because the rodents that were panther prey lost a key food source.

Follow Hebard might never know if the plan succeeds. It could take decades to determine whether the trees behind him show high levels of blight resistance. "And that only tells you if you have a chance" at full resistance, said Hebard, chief scientist of the American Chestnut Foundation, who has devoted his life to crossbreeding nuts.

Before you snicker at the idea of a group called the American Chestnut Foundation, consider some chestnut facts: Americans spend $20 million a year importing chestnuts from Europe and Asia; the meaty nuts are gluten-free, cholesterol-free and a lot less fattening than other nuts; chestnuts make a terrific beer; chestnut tree devotees include Rolling Stones keyboardist Chuck Leavell, whose backyard in Georgia became home last month to a seedling that could be part of the new species coming from the farm Hebard oversees in southwestern Virginia.

"If we keep on losing components of our forests, what are we going to have left?" said Hebard, explaining the passion for a tree that is not even extinct, and for a nut that is imported easily from Europe and Asia for use in salads, stuffings, bread and in toasty bags sold from food carts in New York City.

America used to produce billions of those nuts until a blight imported from Asia attacked trees in New York. The disease spread quickly, and between 1904 and 1940, the trees were nearly wiped out.

Those that remained were either not blight-resistant or too few and widespread to produce healthy offspring to sustain the species, whose healthiest specimens grew to 100 feet tall. The trees' absence had a trickle-down effect on wildlife that foraged for chestnuts. Some experts say the panther's disappearance from this region can be traced to the trees' disappearance, because the rodents that were panther prey lost a key food source.

It would be decades before the crossbreeding program would take hold. Now, after crossing blight-resistant Chinese chestnuts with nonresistant Americans, the foundation has begun widespread test plantings of a nut that is 15/16 American and 1/16 Chinese. It hopes the equation will produce a tree that has the Chinese version's resistance to disease and the American version's ability to thrive in North America's climate.

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